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Douglas Todd: Vancouver luxury realtor Layla Yang’s provocative, pricey world

High-flying businesswoman says five clients, fearing a ban on foreign buyers, have asked her to list their homes

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One of Vancouver’s top realtors says five clients have asked her to put their high-end homes up for sale because they fear whichever party wins the federal election on Sept. 19 will ban foreign house purchases.

Despite the city’s unaffordable housing prices, outspoken and flamboyant Layla Yang, who routinely sells Vancouver homes in the $4- to $15-million range, is dead set against promises by Conservative leader Erin O’Toole, which were mirrored by Justin Trudeau, to ban foreign buyers for two years.

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Since some of Yang’s buyers hail from China, India and elsewhere, she says her wealthy clients in the city realize “If no foreign buyers are permitted to buy, your home will definitely depreciate.”

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Even a temporary pause on offshore buyers “is very wrong,” said Yang, who moved to B.C. from China about 20 years ago, obtaining a bachelors degree in criminology at SFU and becoming a flight attendant before shifting into real estate.

Supporting a ban on foreign ownership “shows you’re against capitalism. That’s why many people love to come to Canada. This is the country of capitalism,” said Yang.

Yang’s super-successful realtor’s career, which she cheerfully says has been “controversial,” illustrates many aspects of the influential high-end housing market in Metro Vancouver, a prime destination for millionaire migrants (even during COVID).

Many of the competing realtors in the city, Yang says, are resentful and jealous of her accomplishments, which includes maintaining up to 60 house listings at a time through her company, Dracco Pacific Realty.

“They’re not like me, at the top, top, top.”

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Yang is currently marketing a $13-million downtown penthouse for Westbank’s ritzy Vancouver House.

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After a provocative trailer for a reality TV series about Yang’s life as a realtor went viral this spring, she said the B.C. Real Estate Council contacted her with many detailed questions.

The TV teaser, put together by Kevin Li, the producer of Vancouver-based Ultra Rich Asian Girls, “caused a lot of controversy,” says Yang. The Real Estate Council didn’t like, she said, that it focused on making money in the housing market — and included sexual innuendo.

“A lot of haters came out. They’re very jealous of me. They’re hypocrites. They don’t like it if you talk about money or sex or those kinds of things. They gave me a lot of bad comments on social media. But I don’t care about it.”

The show, titled Agent Unbreakable, features Yang saying, “The only language you need to know is money” and calling herself a “fearless real-estate general.” One well-built male realtor in the video poses for a photo with his shirt off, saying he wants to put the shot up on the dating site, Tinder.

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“He’s a young man,” says Yang. “He likes the dating. I don’t see what’s wrong. This is very crazy,” said Yang, who acknowledged the TV project with Li is on hold for now.

Maintaining she’s the kind of woman who speaks the truth while many Vancouverites are too hypocritical to do so, Yang offered her opinion on another election issue.

She defended Liberal Vancouver-Granville candidate Taleeb Noormohamed, a real-estate mover and shaker who was criticized in August for flipping 21 properties. The conflict over Moormohamed’s dealings arose soon after Justin Trudeau said he wanted to impose an anti-flipping tax.

“In my opinion people can flip homes, as long as they pay the tax. There’s nothing wrong with it. This is a market economy,” Yang said. “Would you rather see people doing nothing? Gathering welfare?”

Even though Yang is critical of many of B.C.’s roughly 15,000 realtors, particularly for carping about her, she stands up for the industry.

“Honestly, realtors have been looked down upon. Nobody has the guts to mention they’re a realtor.” Many, she said, are afraid people will think, “Oh, you’re nobody. You’re very low.”

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‘In my opinion people can flip homes, as long as they pay the tax,’ says Layla Yang. ‘I pay a lot of taxes — millions and millions.’
‘In my opinion people can flip homes, as long as they pay the tax,’ says Layla Yang. ‘I pay a lot of taxes — millions and millions.’ Photo by Handout

Yang believes her expensive new Bentley automobile was purposely scratched because she’s in real estate. She didn’t bother to file an insurance claim. Still, similar to doctors and lawyers, she thinks she works hard and helps people, including by teaching a course to other realtors.

What’s more, she adds, “I pay a lot of taxes — millions and millions.”

Yang says her critics, whom she says come from various ethnic backgrounds, are “not going to wear me down. I’m a very good thinker. I’m bold. You know why? Because I earn my own living. I don’t have to surrender to anyone.”

After working as a flight attendant for Air Canada and supporting her parents to immigrate to Vancouver from China, Yang said she moved into real estate in 2010 “because I wanted to make more money. I don’t want to be a hypocrite about it.”

Yang said her lawyers, who have helped her through many conflicts, including accusations she threatened a client, urge her to be less forthright and “way more conservative, more careful.” But she won’t have it. “Most people are very small-minded. They don’t use their brains.”

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Yang believes she’s become well-known in the city because “I’m a female. I’m an agent. I’m beautiful. And I don’t care about those people. You know what I mean? …. If you Google me, I’m everywhere.”

There are downsides to her renown, however. “I’m thinking of hiring a bodyguard. I don’t want to be attacked.”

Yang has big plans beyond real estate. A devoted follower of the late motivational speaker and marketer Jim Rohn, Yang goes so far as to say, “I even believe I’m his child. Really.”

Rohn’s teaching inspires her to do more with her life. “Real estate is not my final destination,” she says.

“I want to continue. Actually I’m going to do something really, really big. But I cannot tell you now. I have to speak to my lawyer. I need to go to my next level.”

dtodd@postmedia.com

twitter.com/douglastodd


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